Images Missing in IE

[jblackwood]

I've had an ongoing problem with images not appearing in the Preview, but when I built my target output which was HTML Help everything displayed fine. I just dealt with it. Our target output is now changing to WebHelp. I have images now that do not show up in the WebHelp output using IE6 and IE7. They display fine with Firefox. There are scattered images that do display however. I haven't been able to find a common thread with the ones that do display though. Incidentally when I view Flare's own Help in IE the images are all missing.

[i-tietz]

what format? jpeg? gif? bmp? sth else?

[Richard Ferrell]

I have seen issues with PNG images that are not really PNG images that IE will have problems with.

[jblackwood]

We have both .gifs and .pngs. We are in the process of replacing the .gifs with .pngs. What do you mean by .png that is not really a .png?

[LTinker68]

Incidentally when I view Flare's own Help in IE the images are all missing.

Are you viewing the Flare WebHelp from MadCap's server?

Do you have problems with the images in your project if you're viewing locally, through a web server, or both?

[jblackwood]

Incidentally when I view Flare's own Help in IE the images are all missing.

Are you viewing the Flare WebHelp from MadCap's server?

Do you have problems with the images in your project if you're viewing locally, through a web server, or both?

I was viewing the Flare WebHelp from the application installed locally on my machine. When I go through Madcap's website, everything is fine. I have problems with the images in my WebHelp when I view it locally and if I view it through a web server.

[LTinker68]

Total off-the-wall question, but what program do you have associated with PNGs on your computer? (In any Windows Explorer screen, click on Tools > Folder Options, click on the File Types tab, scroll down to PNG and left-click on it. What program is listed next to "Open with"?)

[jblackwood]

Total off-the-wall question, but what program do you have associated with PNGs on your computer? (In any Windows Explorer screen, click on Tools > Folder Options, click on the File Types tab, scroll down to PNG and left-click on it. What program is listed next to "Open with"?)

Microsoft Office Picture Manager

[jblackwood]

Well, everything was fine first thing this morning. Now the images are not displaying again.

[LTinker68]

Well, now, that's just plain weird.

[jblackwood]

Yeah, I have no idea where to go now!

[RamonS]

Go to http://www.getfirefox.com ....sorry, just couldn't resist. That's what you get from using IE.

Are there any not so standard characters or spaces in the image file names? Maybe the images are there and IE is just too dumb to find them.

[jblackwood]

Most of the file names do have spaces in them. I have tried eliminating the spaces before and it didn't make a difference. The truly odd thing is that a small percentage of the time the images appear just fine. Is it entirely possible that my computer is screwed up?

I wish we could get all our clients to use Firefox instead of IE!

[KevinDAmery]

Where are the files when you have the problem? (i.e. are they on your local system or on a web server?) Reason I ask is that I see some websites (that have nothing to do with Flare) where the images all come through broken sometimes, but other times they're fine. So it could be that the server is the cause.

[LTinker68]

If your final output destination will ultimately be on a web server, then you might want to set up a development server and output your files there. If it truly is your computer, then chances are the output is fine, it's just your viewing of the output that's screwy. I actually had a similar problem on a website we were designing -- I had a dev version running in my IIS and all the programmers were testing against a "real" server. I had a display problem that they didn't see and that I didn't see when I viewed on the "real" server. The problem was only when viewed through my local IIS server.

If that's the case, and IT can set up a development server that you can upload to, then you can ask various people in your office to look at the output and see if they have any problems. If they don't -- and if you don't when viewed on the server -- then you can chalk it up to your computer and just always post to the dev server to view the output.

BTW, are there any other tech writers at your office using Flare? Do any of them have any problems viewing the output on their local machines?

[jblackwood]

If your final output destination will ultimately be on a web server, then you might want to set up a development server and output your files there. If it truly is your computer, then chances are the output is fine, it's just your viewing of the output that's screwy. I actually had a similar problem on a website we were designing -- I had a dev version running in my IIS and all the programmers were testing against a "real" server. I had a display problem that they didn't see and that I didn't see when I viewed on the "real" server. The problem was only when viewed through my local IIS server.

If that's the case, and IT can set up a development server that you can upload to, then you can ask various people in your office to look at the output and see if they have any problems. If they don't -- and if you don't when viewed on the server -- then you can chalk it up to your computer and just always post to the dev server to view the output.

BTW, are there any other tech writers at your office using Flare? Do any of them have any problems viewing the output on their local machines?

No one else is having the same problem.

[LTinker68]

Did you by any chance upgrade to IE7 after you had installed Flare? Either way, you could always try uninstalling Flare and reinstalling it. On the plus side, it's just a problem on your computer and not a problem in Flare (so it seems). Not that that gives much comfort, but at least no one else at the company is sharing in your misery.

[jblackwood]

Did you by any chance upgrade to IE7 after you had installed Flare? Either way, you could always try uninstalling Flare and reinstalling it. On the plus side, it's just a problem on your computer and not a problem in Flare (so it seems). Not that that gives much comfort, but at least no one else at the company is sharing in your misery.

I did upgrade to IE7 after Flare was installed. I've already trying unistalling and reinstalling Flare. When I just asked again, anothet writer now tells me that she has the same intermittent problem. The images are there sometimes and sometimes they're not! It also seems to affect the output too.

[LTinker68]

You might want to enter a trouble ticket and send in your project (if you're allowed to). The only other thing I can think of is if you're using source control with Flare. Maybe they're not playing nicely together and Flare isn't able to grab the image files when it compiles.

[jblackwood]

I'll resurrect the initial case I opened with Support. Incidentally we do use the Source Control piece. The thing that really gets me about it all is that it's intermittent.